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Who is SSI?

The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College publishes national security and strategic research and analysis which serves to influence policy debate and bridge the gap between Military and Academia.

Publications Tagged: france

This book examines what additional security threats Iran might pose as it becomes increasingly capable of making nuclear weapons, what steps the United States and its friends might take to deter and contain it, and what should be done to assure Iran's neighbors do not follow in Tehran's nuclear footsteps.

The author examines the economic, political, technological, and security factors that have shaped recent developments in the U.S. and European defense industries. The author also identifies issues that will shape further industrial restructuring and consolidation in the short- and medium-term, and makes recommendations for assisting the development of a transatlantic, rather than bipolar, defense industrial base.

With the deployment of defenses of American cities against missile attacks, the Bush administration has explicitly rejected the strategic doctrine of nuclear mutually assured destruction (MAD). But what exactly is this doctrine? Where did it come from? To what extent did the nuclear weapons powers ever adopt it, and how much sense does it make today? Getting MAD, the first critical history of this influential line of strategic thinking, supplies the answers.

France believes that external threats to its vital and important interests spring more from potential instability on the periphery of Europe than from rival European powers. France has modified its military doctrine to reflect this strategic calculus, and France's conception of peace operations reflects this doctrinal change.

U.S. national strategy and U.S. Army doctrine explicitly establish the overwhelming need for, and value of, coalitions and alliances in the post-cold war era. Two generations of U.S. civil officials and military officers have been inculcated with the precept of NATO's importance to security and stability in Europe. Free of the confines of the cold war, competing national interests and different national perceptions have transformed the Alliance.

The authors of this report explain how French policy toward NATO has changed since 1992. Importantly, they discuss how these changes have been effected. However, certain key elements of French external policy have not changed. In effect, therefore, the authors argue that while France may wish to cooperate with NATO, this does not imply that there will be a more cooperative French attitude toward the Alliance.